The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Friday, November 8, 2013

The Humphrey Bogart House -- No. 245 West 103rd Street

photo by Alice Lum

Adam Bogart had greater ambitions than continuing his
family’s tradition.The Bogarts were
among the earliest of the Dutch settlers; one of Adam's ancestor being the first
European infant born in New York State.While Bogart’s family had been burghers, they more recently made their
living as truck farmers. Adam instead became an innkeeper and fiddled with printing on
the side.When he invented a process for
transferring lithographs to easily-manipulated tin sheets--an innovation that transformed the
printing industry--his fortunes soared nearly overnight.

With his new found wealth, Adam transplanted his wife and son,
Belmont, to Manhattan.Here the Bogarts
would rub shoulders with other families with old names and relatively new money
like the Astors and Rhinelanders.Adam
Bogart’s primary drive was the elevation of his son within society.

Belmont DeForest Bogart was outfitted in gentlemanly
clothes, polished in his social demeanor, and sent to private schools.He
graduated from Columbia College medical school and, at the age of 30, met the
striking and successful Maud Humphrey who was one year younger than he.

Unusual for a woman in the 1890s, Maud had already made a professional
name for herself.At the age of 16 the
talented artist had already sold her drawings to publications.Like most artists at the time, she studied in
Paris.Among her compatriots there was James
McNeill Whistler. She then returned home to ply her trade.Maud Humphrey focused on commercial art
rather than pretty landscapes and portraits.She illustrated calendars, books and advertisements for highly-visible
products like Ivory Soap.

Belmont and Maud’s courtship was strained from the
beginning.She was an early feminist
with strong ideals.His beliefs were
rooted deeply in masculine Victorian values that clearly rejected women’s equal
rights.Belmont would go on to earn the handsome
salary of $20,000 a year as a surgeon and heart and lung specialist—about $500,000. But Maud was the
highest-paid female illustrator in the nation, earning more than double
his salary.Her $50,000 income was well over a
million dollars in today’s money.

The differences were too strong and amicable good-byes were
said.It would have been the end of the
road for the couple had not a horrific accident occurred. As Belmont was riding in an ambulance one
of the horses pulling the vehicle became spooked.It reared, causing the ambulance to topple, seriously
fracturing the physician’s leg.The leg
was poorly set, then rebroken and set again to correct the botched
procedure.For the rest of his life Dr. Belmont
Bogart would suffer pain and rely on medications like morphine.

Hearing of the accident, Maud Humphrey paid a visit to offer
consolation.One visit turned into
another, then another, and before too long the unlikely couple was married.

While all this was happening the Upper West Side was
developing at an astonishing rate.Clusters
of modern speculative rowhouses had cropped along the side streets and the
avenues were lined with grand mansions.On West 103rd Street, between West End Avenue and Broadway, a
row of brownstone houses had appeared.Intended for well-to-do families, they sported up-to-date features to lure
new homeowners—angular bays, decorative carved panels and handsome interiors.

The newlyweds purchased No. 245 and on Christmas Day 1899
their first child was born.The boy took
his mother’s name—Humphrey. Along with the
family in the house were four servants: a laundress, two maids and a cook.Later two little girls would arrive—Frances (known
at Pat) in 1901, and Katherine (known as Kay) two years later.

Marriage did not necessarily bring the end to the
stark disparities between Belmont and Maud.She headed the household and continued her career; a somewhat shocking
choice for a turn-of-the-century woman.The children were raised, for the most part, by nursemaids.Nevertheless, Maud grasped the opportunity
of readily-available models in the household.

Little Humphrey’s chubby angelic face began appearing on
advertisements and jar labels of Mellin’s Baby Foods.His early and unwilling celebrity would irk
him throughout his life.According to
author George Perry in his “Bogie: A Celebration of the Life and Films of
Humphrey Bogart,” the actor later said “There was a period in American history when
you couldn’t pick up a goddamed magazine without seeing my kisser in it.”

Belmont was addressed by the children as “father,” and the feminist Maud instructed the children to call her by her first name.Neither
parent was emotionally demonstrative.Reportedly the children were never hugged; instead they received the
more properly-Victorian pat on the head or back.

Belmont was not totally without some input into the children’s
lives.While Humphrey was still a
toddler his father made preparations for the boy’s entrance into Philips
Academy Andover; a prestigious boarding school.The school would be an effective stepping-stone for the boy to enter the
medical profession his father envisioned for him.

The 103rd Street house was modified to accommodate
the Bogarts’ professions.The English
basement was modified into an office for Belmont’s medical practice; and an upper floor was converted to a studio for Maud.On the roof Belmont kept coops of pigeons which he raised as a hobby.

The children enjoyed the fruits of privilege that came from
two highly successful parents.The
family owned a sprawling 55-acre estate, Willow Brook, on the shore of
Canandaigua Lake in Seneca Point in upstate New York.Here
Belmont taught his son to sail.

Life in the Bogart household was troubled, however.Maud suffered migraines and bouts of mental
instability.Belmont more and more
showed signs of morphine addiction.The significant
differences that had led them to part company years earlier were now magnified.The children would later relate of
frightening nights spent lying in the dark listening to their parents verbal
fighting.

Young Humphrey was sent to the exclusive Trinity School
where he spent eight years being prepared for the Ivy League.He was, at best, a mediocre student;
excelling in nothing.Neither academics
nor sports interested him; yet Maud held out hope that he would go on to Yale
and Belmont held fast to the idea that he would go to Phillips.

The United States’ entry into World War I offered Humphrey
Bogart an escape from the house on 103rd Street.In the spring of 1918 he enlisted in the U.S.
Navy, officially reporting for duty on July 2 in the Bronx.After weeks of instruction he boarded the
U.S.S. Leviathan as a seaman.Two days
later the Armistice was signed, ending the conflict.Rather than seeing fighting, the teenager
became part of a crew transporting the war-weary soldiers back home from
Europe.He later remembered “At eighteen
war was great stuff.Paris! French
girls! Hot damn!”

When he returned to New York he got an office job at World
Films.He first appeared on stage in 1921 and
within the next 16 years he would appear in 17 Broadway shows.

The Bogart family moved out of the 103rd Street
house in 1925, relocating to No. 79 East 56th Street.It would not be long before the homes of the
once-fashionable block became boarding houses and apartments.In the spring of 1938 the former Bogart house
was listed as having 13 furnished rooms.It would remain that way until 1962 when it was converted to apartments—one
per floor.It was most likely at this
time that the brownstone stoop was removed that the entrance moved to the
former English basement, a few steps below sidewalk level.

The stoop was removed to be replaced by a featureless doorway into the basement. -- photo by Alice Lum

Today the house is owned by the city as low-income
housing.The attractive but typical row house would
draw no attention at all were it not for the baby born here in 1899—the boy
whose face on a baby food jar would later become a silver screen icon.